Racial differences for brain bleeds suggest stroke risk greater than thought for blacks

Small, clinically silent areas of bleeding in the brain appear to be more common in black versus white stroke patients hospitalized for new brain bleeds, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. These findings may help explain the higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke among the black population, especially in those who are medically underserved. So-called "microbleeds" are essentially drops of blood detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain. This study of 87 stroke patients shows that blacks had 32 percent more microbleed than whites, investigators report in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Black patients were also shown to have microbleeds in multiple areas of the brain more frequently than did white patients. The researchers... [read full story]